Ukip Donor Mansplains Fall Of Roman Empire To Classicist Mary Beard

Arron Banks: 'You don't have a monopoly on history!'

Ukip donor Arron Banks has taken the bold step of challenging Cambridge University classicist Mary Beard on her knowledge of Roman history, citing his schoolboy studies and Russell Crowe Hollywood epic Gladiator as his sources.

Beard - a professor of classics and a fellow of Newnham College since 1984 who has produced multiple series on Rome for the BBC - is one of Britain’s best-known scholars.

The university don clearly felt she had to intervene on Twitter when Banks - the multi-millionaire diamond mine-owning insurance tycoon who has bankrolled Ukip and played a key role in Brexit - started to link the fall of the Roman Empire with troubles affecting the European Union.